Friday, July 27

AFN chief leaves premiers' meeting without support for murdered women inquiry

BY ALISON AULD, THE CANADIAN PRESS JULY 25, 2012

Premiers and aboriginal leaders prepare for a meeting in Lunenburg, N.S. on Wednesday, July 25, 2012 as part of the annual Council of the Federation gathering. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

LUNENBURG, N.S. - National Chief Shawn Atleo left a meeting Wednesday with Canada's premiers without their full support for a public inquiry into violence against aboriginal women and girls.

The chief of the Assembly of First Nations met with the premiers and other native leaders in Lunenburg, N.S., where they discussed aboriginal education, housing, health care and ways to ensure natives have a seat at the table when it comes to sharing resource-based revenues.

He urged the premiers and the federal government to support his calls for a national inquiry into missing and slain aboriginal women, who are five times more likely to experience violence than any other group in Canada.

"This is a moment of reckoning. This is a defining moment in this country," Atleo said.

"We're calling on these premiers to take what we see as being absolutely necessary and take a significant leadership role."

Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter, who hosted the meeting, said the matter was discussed and a consensus was reached to "watch what was happening" in other provinces.

But he wouldn't offer unequivocal support for Atleo's call for an inquiry, adding that another meeting on violence against aboriginal women is to be held in November in Manitoba.

"The gravity of the situation is not to be diminished and we understand very much the desire to get to the bottom of these things," Dexter said.

"But what I'm saying is there are other things that are already underway."

British Columbia is holding its own inquiry into the death and disappearance of women from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and how the police handled the investigation into serial killer Robert Pickton.

Betty Ann Lavallee, national chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, said that while the premiers didn't fully back a national inquiry, they did promise to support measures to combat violence against women and girls.

"I think in their own way, they are saying they endorse it," she said after the meeting. "Where we're at today on this issue from where we started a couple of years ago is tremendous."

Ottawa has also resisted calls for an inquiry despite persistent pleas from aboriginal leaders to initiate some type of probe into the issue that has beset native communities across the country.

First Nations researchers have estimated that there are more than 600 aboriginal women who have gone missing over the past two decades, and that problems of violence against aboriginal women are profound, on reserve and off.

The issue has been debated in aboriginal circles for years, but has taken on significant momentum since the arrest last month of Shawn Cameron Lamb, accused in a string of killings involving aboriginal women in Winnipeg.

It also became a rallying point for candidates competing last week for the post of national chief of the Assembly of First Nations. The chiefs passed an emergency resolution urging all levels of government to take action.

The premiers signed a personal pledge to live violence-free and promote safety and security among Aboriginal Peoples, joining more than 1,300 aboriginal leaders and delegates who signed it at the AFN meeting.

© Copyright (c)

Sunday, July 22

DNA not being used in new database for missing persons and unidentified remains in Canada

BY ADAM MILLER, THE CANADIAN PRESS JULY 22, 2012

Lindsey Nicholls, 14, is pictured in this RCMP handout photo. Judy Peterson has been a proponent of a national database to help identify missing persons and unidentified remains her daughter, Lindsey Jill Nicholls, went missing in 1993. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ HO

A national database to help identify missing persons and unidentified remains is more than a year away, but families and experts say that DNA is the missing piece of the puzzle that the initiative needs.

Judy Peterson has been a proponent of such a database since her daughter, Lindsey Jill Nicholls, went missing in 1993.

"I think the DNA databank is just the missing piece," she said from her home in Sidney, B.C. "I believe it will happen, I just can't understand why it's taking so long."

Peterson started a petition in 2003 called Lindsey's Law, calling for DNA from missing persons and unidentified remains to be added to the National DNA Data Bank, which was set up in 2000 to help police with their investigations.

Melanie Alix's son Dylan Koshman went missing in Edmonton in October, 2008 and she too has been petitioning the government for such an addition to the data bank.

"I'd give my life to find my son," she said from her home in Moose Jaw, Sask.

Alix and her husband gave DNA samples to police in Edmonton after her son's disappearance, but they were not accessible to law enforcement in other provinces because there is no national DNA database for missing persons and unidentified remains.

A new index called the National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains would store descriptive information on these cases and allow for them to be compared nationally for the first time when it launches in late 2013, but it won't include DNA.

The federal government has been resistant to amending the National DNA Data Bank to include the thousands of missing persons and hundreds of unidentified bodies across the country. It cites privacy concerns and high costs.

Ray Boughen, Conservative MP from Saskatchewan, said that costs could be lowered if DNA from these cases was voluntarily incorporated into the existing database for convicted offenders and crime scenes.

"It's voluntary, no one is going to grab anyone by the throat and say we're going to take your DNA," he said from Regina.

Boughen presented Alix's petition to the House of Commons on Feb. 1 and in June he re-submitted three different petitions related to the databank amendment with close to 8,000 signatures.

Vic Toews, the federal Minister of Public Safety, responded to the initial petition and said the government "accepted in principle" the recommendation, but added it continued to raise "a number of complex legal, privacy, financial and practical considerations."

As of June 30, the data bank had assisted in more than 23,000 investigations, including more than 1,600 murder cases, and contained more than 325,000 DNA profiles from convicted offenders and crime scenes.

According to the RCMP's Canadian Police Information Centre, there were 6,838 people listed as missing as of March 31, but there is no recorded number of unidentified remains in cemeteries and morgues across the country.

Andrew McCallum, Chief Coroner of Ontario, said numbers change on a daily basis but about 1,000 of those missing were from Ontario, in addition to 108 unknown bodies.

"The reason that it's a little challenging is the jurisdiction over death is a provincial and territorial responsibility so the federal government can provide funding but it doesn't actually have jurisdiction over these provincial matters," he said.

Yet Peterson, who will face the 19th anniversary of her daughter's disappearance on Aug. 2, is still without closure.

"Maybe her DNA is sitting unidentified in the Crime Scene Index and I would never know," she said.

"Those remains that are sitting in coroner's offices, those are people, they're people's loved ones and they deserve to be identified and the family members deserve to know."

© Copyright (c)

Tuesday, July 17

Mounties issue sweeping denial in high-profile B.C. harassment lawsuit

The federal and B.C. governments are denying allegations in a high-profile sexual harassment lawsuit that prompted several other female Mounties to come forward with claims of abuse.

BY JAMES KELLER, THE CANADIAN PRESS JULY 17, 2012 5:21 PM

Former RCMP Cpl. Catherine Galliford recently came forward after years of sexual harassment.

Photograph by: Bill Keay, Vancouver Sun

VANCOUVER -- The Mounties have issued a sweeping denial in a high-profile sexual harassment suit by a British Columbia officer, whose allegations have prompted other women to come forward with their own claims of abuse.

Cpl. Catherine Galliford, who was the force's public face during the Air India and Robert Pickton cases, first outlined her allegations in media interviews last year. She filed a lawsuit this past May.

Her allegations have prompted the RCMP to promise to tackle harassment within the force. In the months since, several other female Mounties have filed cases of their own, including one who says dozens of other officers are prepared to join her in a class-action lawsuit.

Galliford's allegations span nearly two decades, during which she claims her colleagues and superiors sexually assaulted, harassed and intimidated her until she developed post-traumatic stress disorder. She claimed she didn't come forward sooner because she feared retribution.

But the B.C. government and Ottawa filed a joint statement of defence this week denying all of Galliford's allegations.

Instead, the governments paint her as an alcoholic who refused treatment and rejected the RCMP's efforts to keep her away from one of the men she said harassed her. When she finally complained in 2011, her allegations were immediately investigated, says the statement of defence.

"These defendants deny each and every allegation contained in ... the notice of civil claim," says the statement of defence.

"If the plaintiff had concerns about conflict, harassment or intimidation in the workplace or by other members or officers at any time, she was obliged and had opportunities to make a complaint."

While the federal government represents the RCMP, the B.C. government contracts the Mounties for provincial policing and is also named in Galliford's lawsuit.

Her suit also names Const. Marvin Wawia, Supt. Mike Bergerman and Insp. Doug Henderson; Dr. Ian MacDonald, an RCMP-employed physician; and Const. Phil Little, who worked for the Vancouver police but was part of the joint RCMP-Vancouver missing women investigation.

The statement of defence denies all of the allegations involving those officers, with the exception of Wawia, who was the subject of a complaint in the early 1990s shortly after Galliford joined the force.

The two met while Galliford was preparing to join the force. Galliford's lawsuit claims Wawia aggressively pursued her after they met. The governments' statement of defence, however, says the pair were "cohabiting" from December 1990 to March 1991.

The governments acknowledge Wawia was later disciplined after a complaint involving Galliford, though the statement of defence doesn't say what that complaint was about. The statement says after Galliford finished her training, she repeatedly requested to be posted to the RCMP's B.C. headquarters, despite the force's concerns the two officers should not be working together.

Eventually, Galliford married another officer stationed in B.C. and she was transferred to North Vancouver.

The statement of defence says health care staff within the force first heard concerns about Galliford's alcohol consumption in late 2004 and early 2005.

She was referred to a treatment program and agreed to what's known as a "relapse prevention agreement," but the statement of defence says she continued to drink. Because of her refusal to participate in treatment, her case became a disciplinary one, the statement says.

"The plaintiff has failed to follow medical advice in respect to treatment, and in this way caused or contributed to any medical conditions or problems she had or now has," the statement says.

The governments deny Galliford's claim that a medical report provided to an RCMP doctor diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress disorder. Rather, the report merely asked whether she had the condition, the statement says.

None of the allegations contained in either Galliford's lawsuit or the government's statement of defence has been tested in court. Galliford's lawyer could not be reached for comment.

Since Galliford went public, several more women have filed similar lawsuits targeting the RCMP and its officers.

Const. Susan Gastaldo filed a lawsuit alleging she was sexually assaulted by Staff Sgt. Travis Pearson, who maintains they were involved in a consensual affair. An internal disciplinary board accepted Pearson's version of events, but Gastaldo is still pursuing her lawsuit.

Const. Karen Katz has filed two lawsuits. One alleges a colleagues harassed and sexually assaulted her. Her second, filed earlier this month, alleges more widespread abuse during her career.

Cpl. Elisabeth Mary Couture filed a lawsuit last December, alleging harassment and intimidation from her superiors and colleagues.

Janet Merlo, a 19-year veteran of the force, filed a class-action lawsuit in March alleging sexist comments, sexual pranks and derogatory remarks while on the job. Her lawyer has suggested dozens of other officers are prepared to join the case.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Friday, July 13

Sexual abuse worse than kinky photos

BY SHANNON CORREGAN, TIMES COLONIST JULY 13, 2012

RCMP Cpl. Jim Brown of Coquitlam is facing investigation for inappropriate conduct after pornographic photos of him were posted to a website last Thursday. In the same week, Const. Karen Katz filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the RCMP. That Brown and Katz's stories broke the same week seems to be an unfortunate coincidence at best, and an appalling trend at worst - for Katz's lawsuit is just the latest in a long series of sexual misconduct accusations against the force.

Yet, aside from the fact that both stories contain the words "RCMP" and "sex," how similar are they, really? A decade's worth of institutionalized sexual harassment is clearly not the same as two adults engaging in kinky sex acts.

Since last fall, the RCMP has been wracked by allegations of sexual harassment. The most prominent case has been that of B.C. Cpl. Catherine Galliford, who alleges that long-term sexual harassment at the hands of her colleagues resulted in chemical dependency, post-traumatic stress disorder and finally caused her to go on sick leave in 2007.

Galliford draws attention to the lack of functional mechanisms for reporting abuse within the RCMP, which results in an environment where there is no accountability for abusers, who are often senior officers. Police psychologist Mike Webster argues that this lack of accountability, in conjunction with the generally male-dominated structure of police organizations, creates a "culture of fear" where abuse is downplayed, ignored and dismissed if reported.

Take the case of Sgt. Don Ray, who was disciplined for sexually harassing subordinate officers in Alberta, but whose punishment was a demotion and a transfer to B.C. rather than being removed from a position of power. This is a culture that defends perpetrators rather than victims, even when the perpetrators are publicly acknowledged to be guilty.

So, at a moment when the RCMP is facing a PR nightmare on a massive scale (as well it should be), it's little wonder that Brown's involvement in a sexual-fetish site is garnering serious attention. But Brown hasn't done anything illegal. He was a member of an online community for people interested in bondage, domination, submission and sadomasochistic sex acts. The photos in question depict a man (who may or may not be Brown, according to the CBC) abducting and assaulting a woman, who is herself a fellow BDSM participant, as part of a fantasy scene. Not everyone's cup of tea, I know, but as long as the participants are consenting adults, sexual preferences are matters of taste, not morality, and certainly not legality.

Yet for some, these photos were reminiscent of the Robert Pickton murders, an impression that was compounded by the fact that Brown played a role, albeit a small one, in the botched Pickton investigation.

I have yet to be convinced that Brown's BDSM activity was a purposeful recreation of any aspect of the Pickton case, but when the RCMP as an institution has chronically failed to address systemic abuse within its own ranks, and when the Pickton investigation was a textbook case of marginalized women's voices being ignored to disastrous results, I can see why officials are worried about Brown.

Ironically, BDSM communities are often are bastions of safe, consensual sex. Despite sex fetishists' reputation in mainstream culture, if you're going to be tying each other up, conversations about consent, boundaries and gender dynamics are crucial. Webster gets it wrong when he argues that the images of Brown are "severely degrading to women," since he's ignoring the agency of the woman who chose to be a part of that fantasy.

When kink communities have problems, they're likely to be the same problems for which the RCMP is currently being investigated: lack of accountability, a culture of male entitlement, victim blaming and privileging abusers over survivors. Kink isn't the problem.

I don't mean to set up Brown as a martyr; the possibility that he was reproducing Pickton scenes as fantasy is seriously troubling.

My only worry is that we are more interested in punishing sexual harassment and abuse when we can dress it up as something perverted and taboo, instead of engaging in the significantly more difficult task of punishing abusers who are strong, abusers who are respected, abusers who are beloved in their communities and abusers who are protected by a police culture that tolerates their behaviour and silences their victims.

shannon.corregan@gmail.com

© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist

Manitoba task force examines 28 homicide and missing cases - Manitoba - CBC News

Manitoba task force examines 28 homicide and missing cases - Manitoba - CBC News:

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Tuesday, July 10

Corporal had role in Pickton investigation

BY MARK FORNATARO, TIMES COLONIST JULY 10, 2012 3:04 AM

Re: "Time for RCMP to cleanse itself," July 7.

The editorial reminds us of many disturbing incidents of RCMP behaviour in B.C. and while touching on Cpl. Jim Brown's shocking photos depicting violence toward women, it doesn't remind us that Brown was actually an important figure in the Robert Pickton investigation.

This makes his behaviour all the more deserving of censure and scrutiny at the highest levels. In fact, lawyer Cameron Ward, who represented families of many of the murdered and missing women that gave rise to the Pickton inquiry, demanded that the Pickton inquiry head Wally Oppal reopen the recently concluded investigation in light of Brown's conduct.

Ward stated: "This particular officer, given his personal involvement in the Pickton investigation and the role he played three years before Pickton was apprehended, is critically important."

Mark Fornataro

Victoria

© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist

Friday, July 6

The Unsolved Murders of Indigenous Women in Canada

SPIEGEL ONLINE

07/05/2012 10:43 AM

'Highway of Tears'

The Unsolved Murders of Indigenous Women in Canada

By Sebastian Moll

Highway 16 in Canada has become known as the "Highway of Tears" because dozens of women have disappeared along its route. Many of them have been killed, most of them First Nation indigenous peoples. The police have shown little interest in solving the crimes.

The view from our van could be straight out of a tourism brochure. There are snow-covered peaks, forests painted in fall colors, and next to the road flows a mountain stream where fishermen are catching salmon.

As we travel deeper into this idyllic landscape, the mood of our driver, Gladys Radek, becomes darker. She plays the Patsy Cline song "If I Could See the World (Through the Eyes of a Child)," over and over again. It is a ballad about longing for a childhood like the one Gladys never had.

Gladys was born 56 years ago on the reserve for the Gitxsan indigenous people in British Columbia, but she never gets homesick as she drives along Highway 16, the "Highway of Tears."

"There are too many ghosts," she says.

The ghosts are the women who have been disappearing without a trace along the 700-kilometer-long (435-mile-long) stretch of highway. Official police statistics list 18 women in all, 17 of whom are First Nation, as much of the indigenous population in Canada is called. Amnesty International assumes, however, that there are considerably more. Not a single case has been solved.

Locked up By Day, Abused at Night

That doesn't surprise Radek. It speaks to her own personal experience. The life of a native woman like her doesn't count for much here in northern Canada, some 200 kilometers from the border with Alaska. To her, it's clear what must have happened: The women were picked up on the stretch between the reserves, the gold mines and the logging camps, raped, killed and dumped along the side of the road.

We arrive in Prince Rupert, where the Highway of Tears reaches the Gulf of Alaska. Unemployed indigenous people hang around in dingy coffee shops. Almost all of the fish-processing plants that once employed many in the town have shut down. There was too much competition from Japan.

Radek is uncomfortable. She doesn't like this place. When she was a small child, her foster father spent the summer fishing in the harbor. Radek spent her days locked below deck on the boat, until he came for her in the evening.

It was here, at the entrance to town on Highway 16, that her niece Tamara disappeared five years ago. She was 18 years old. A ghost.

Vicky Hill's Mother Disappeared in 1978

Vicki Hill, 35, has spent her entire life in Prince Rupert. She brings a folder with photos and newspaper clippings to our meeting in a greasy Chinese restaurant on Main Street. They are all that remains of her mother, who disappeared on the highway on March 26, 1978, when Hill was only six months old.

The photo in one of the articles shows a beautiful young First Nation woman in a neat summer dress. Three days after she disappeared from town, her body was found 30 kilometers away. She was lying naked in a bush a few hundred meters from the highway.

Her death certificate lists "pneumonia" as the cause of death. But the last line of the document contradicts this finding. It states it was a "homicide." Still, there was no investigation. The body was buried at the cemetery in Prince Rupert, where it was never marked by a gravestone.

Who found the body? Who wrote the contradictory death certificate? Why didn't anyone investigate her death? Vicki Hill wants answers to these questions. She wants to be rid of the feeling that anyone walking down the street in Prince Rupert could be the murderer. But she is running up against a wall of silence.

Each Result Would Only Produce Uncomfortable Questions

It is a three-day trip from Prince Rupert to Vancouver, where we meet with the private detective Ray Michalko. He was once a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Mounties. Six years ago, the Mounties formed a special commission to look into the Highway 16 cases. They invested $11 million (Canadian) to investigate the murders, but without success.

Michalko is not surprised. "They put 50 people in front of computers and hoped that a serial killer would jump out at them," he says. Data was collected and profiles were created. The only thing that is not being done, Michalko says, is real detective work.

He couldn't stand by and watch anymore, he says. That's why he drives along Highway 16 now, knocking on doors and asking questions. Michalko doubts that the special commission wants to achieve serious results. Each real result would only produce uncomfortable questions.

That's what happened during the trial against Robert Pickton, who was sentenced to life in prison in Vancouver in 2007. When police officers searched for illegal weapons on his pig farm outside Vancouver, they found pieces of clothing belonging to a missing Native prostitute. When police then scoured the farm from top to bottom, they found the remains of 49 Native women.

Pickton made pornographic films of the women and then slaughtered them like the pigs at his farm. But the trial also raised questions about the police and the justice system. How is it possible that his crimes could have gone undiscovered for so long? Why didn't anyone search for the missing women?

There was a public hearing on the Pickton case, and new details about corruption among the Mounties and justice officials emerged on a daily basis. Michalko believes that the special commission was formed so the debacle surrounding the Pickton case didn't extend to the cases from Highway 16.

Michalko believes the situations are similar. In his mind, they both shed light on the dark side of British Columbia. "When you think about the problems up there, you'll go crazy," he says.

'It is Unbearable, How Our People Are Forced to Live'

On the route from Prince Rupert to Prince George we pass Moricetown, the reserve where Gladys grew up. Her mother still lives here in one of the prefabricated houses that one can pick up at any home improvement store. The whole reserve is filled with them. The muddy street that connects them is littered with garbage -- TVs, wrecked cars and empty beer cans.

When Gladys' sister Peggy opens the door, a musty smell drifts our way. Peggy, Gladys explains to us later, has spent two years in prison for assaulting a man who was trying to rape her. Her mother is sitting silently on a sofa filled with holes, gazing absent-mindedly. Her hair falls in oily strands from her head, and her blind eye peers eerily around the room.

"It is unbearable, how our people are forced to live," Gladys says, when we turn back onto Highway 16 an hour later.

It is almost a miracle that she escaped this misery. Her parents were almost always drunk. When her younger brother starved to death, they were in a bar. Gladys was five then. That's when she was taken away from her parents.

Her foster parents didn't provide her with a childhood she would have wanted either. Her foster father started raping her when she was eight. When she was 13, she had the courage to report him to the reserve police. They shrugged their shoulders in response. After that, she packed her bags and ran away.

Gladys could easily have become one of the missing on the Highway of Tears. But she survived, moved to Vancouver, and raised five children. Now she is working as a spokeswoman for an organization for "Missing and Murdered Women." Her group estimates that there are 500 missing and murdered women in Canada.

"Someone has to give a voice to the many families who don't know what happened to their loved ones," she says. The worst, she says, is the feeling of being alone in your pain.

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Cop's role in Pickton case scrutinized

Oppal demands answers from Department of Justice over Cpl. Jim Brown's code of conduct investigation

BY IAN MULGREW, VANCOUVER SUN COLUMNIST JULY 6, 2012 3:02 AM

Missing Women Commissioner Wally Oppal wants quick answers about the Coquitlam Mountie, his X-rated Internet exploits and any relevance they may have to the Robert Pickton serial killings.

But he is refusing to reopen his oneman inquiry into the investigations of the crimes and where police went awry, prolonging the heinous murder spree.

Oppal said he had asked for a full explanation from the federal Department of Justice Thursday after reading a Vancouver Sun story about an RCMP code-of-conduct investigation into the officer who posted disturbing torture and sexually explicit photographs on the Web.

That didn't satisfy Cameron Ward, who represents families of missing and murdered women.

He demanded Oppal interrupt writing his final report and reopen his justwrapped hearings.

"This particular officer, given his personal involvement in the Pickton investigation and the role he played three years before Pickton was apprehended is critically important," Ward said.

The graphic Internet images show Cpl. Jim Brown - who has been placed on administrative duties - posing in kidnap-and-torture scenes reminiscent of the pig-farm slayings.

In one, a naked woman hangs with her hands tied above her head while the self-styled "Kilted Knight" appears to slash her with a large butcher's knife.

Late Thursday, RCMP Assistant Commissioner Randy Beck said in a media statement that the force actually found "some graphic staged photographs" on a memory stick belonging to Brown in December 2010.

But at that time, no investigation was begun, Beck said, because the officer in charge of the Coquitlam detachment "did not believe it met the threshold for a code-of-conduct violation."

In March 2012, during an investigation into a complaint by a woman about Brown, the photos on the Web were discovered. As a result, a code-of-conduct inquiry was ordered and is being conducted by the Richmond RCMP.

"In keeping with the RCMP's commitment to hold our members to a higher standard, I am taking the unusual step of asking an external police agency to independently review our internal code-of-conduct investigation," Beck said.

"While we must strike a balance between an individual's rights and freedoms when off duty and the RCMP Code of Conduct, I am personally embarrassed and very disappointed that the RCMP would be, in any way, linked to photos of that nature."

In July 1999, more than two years before Pickton was arrested, Brown introduced detectives on the missing women's task force to a key witness, Ross Caldwell.

"We have known all along that Brown was a go-between," Oppal told The Vancouver Sun. "He had a bit part to play in all of this."

But Ward disagreed: "During the hearings, I unsuccessfully requested that both Brown and Pickton informant Ross Caldwell be called as witnesses - The relevance of this should be self-evident."

"The 'bit part' Brown played was actually pretty big," Ward said, "he produced the informant Caldwell who corroborated the prior informant [Bill] Hiscox's information that Pickton was a killer."

Ward has advanced the unproven theory that RCMP members were aware years before Pickton's arrest that off-duty cops, gangsters and sex trade workers frequented par-ties at Piggy's Palace, a rural booze-can run by his brother Dave.

When Ward put his theory to a retired senior RCMP officer at the inquiry in May, he denied knowing of Mounties partying with the Picktons.

Beck also was incredulous. "The member's full involvement in the Pickton investigation was provided to the inquiry in keeping with normal disclosure practices," the acting commanding officer for B.C. said.

"We will continue to cooper-ate fully with the inquiry and we will inform the inquiry of the findings of our code-of-conduct investigation as well as those of the independent external review."

Oppal insisted he was reluctant to reopen his inquiry because he believed he had heard all of the relevant evidence.

"Cpl. Brown had no contact with Caldwell other than he was a go-between," he said. "But because of the inflammatory nature of what we found out in The Vancouver Sun this morning I've asked commission counsel to look into it to see if anything else should be done. We need to know what is relevant and what might impact on the investigation."

The former Appeal Court justice and cabinet minister acknowledged being troubled by the controversial material.

"It's our duty to find out if there is anything more to this story," Oppal said. "We have to do that."

Art Vertlieb, commission counsel, echoed the commitment and said the inquiry hoped to have answers within a day: "We are taking it very seriously."

Coquitlam RCMP commanding officer Supt. Claude Wil-cott said the force began investigating Brown's Web activities after he was cleared of the com-plaint from "a girl on a dating website."

"We concluded that investigation at the end of June," Wil-cott said.

Initially, the RCMP legal ser-vices department said Brown had been acting on his own time, was not holding himself out as a representative of the force and was engaged in legal consensual adult conduct.

"Just because it's legal doesn't mean it should be condoned or accepted by any manager," Ward said.

"I know most law firms wouldn't condone it and I'm hard-pressed to think of any reputable organization that would condone such behaviour."

imulgrew@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Thursday, July 5

Missing Women Commissioner wants answers to RCMP officer's sexually explicit photos

The Coquitlam RCMP member at the centre of the controversy over graphic, sexually explicit Internet photos is on administrative duties and the force is seeking an outside police agency to review its code-of-conduct investigation.

BY IAN MULGREW, VANCOUVER SUN COLUMNIST JULY 5, 2012 7:59 PM

Cpl. Jim Brown's graphic staged photo

Photograph by: Handout, Special to the Sun

Missing Women Commissioner Wally Oppal wants quick answers about the Coquitlam Mountie, his X-rated Internet exploits and any relevance they may have to the Robert Pickton serial killings.

But he is refusing to reopen his one-man inquiry into the investigations of the crimes and where police went awry, prolonging the heinous murder spree.

Oppal said he had asked for a full explanation from the federal Department of Justice Thursday after reading a Vancouver Sun story about an RCMP code-of-conduct investigation into the officer who posted disturbing torture and sexually explicit photographs on the Web.

That didn’t satisfy Cameron Ward, who represents families of missing and murdered women.

He demanded Oppal interrupt writing his final report and reopen his just-wrapped hearings.

“This particular officer, given his personal involvement in the Pickton investigation and the role he played three years before Pickton was apprehended is critically important,” Ward said.

The graphic Internet images show Cpl. Jim Brown — who has been placed on administrative duties — posing in kidnap-and-torture scenes reminiscent of the pig-farm slayings.

In one, a naked woman hangs with her hands tied above her head while the self-styled “Kilted Knight” appears to slash her with a large butcher’s knife.

Late Thursday, RCMP Assistant Commissioner Randy Beck said in a media statement that the force actually found “some graphic staged photographs” on a memory stick belonging to Brown in December 2010.

But at that time, no investigation was begun, Beck said, because the officer in charge of the Coquitlam detachment “did not believe it met the threshold for a code-of-conduct violation.”

In March 2012, during an investigation into a complaint by a woman about Brown, the photos on the Web were discovered. As a result, a code-of-conduct inquiry was ordered and is being conducted by the Richmond RCMP.

“In keeping with the RCMP’s commitment to hold our members to a higher standard, I am taking the unusual step of asking an external police agency to independently review our internal code-of-conduct investigation,” Beck said.

“While we must strike a balance between an individual’s rights and freedoms when off duty and the RCMP Code of Conduct, I am personally embarrassed and very disappointed that the RCMP would be, in any way, linked to photos of that nature.”

In July 1999, more than two years before Pickton was arrested, Brown introduced detectives on the missing women’s task force to a key witness, Ross Caldwell.

“We have known all along that Brown was a go-between,” Oppal said in an interview. “He had a bit part to play in all of this.”

But Ward disagreed: “During the hearings, I unsuccessfully requested that both Brown and Pickton informant Ross Caldwell be called as witnesses … The relevance of this should be self-evident.”

“The ‘bit part’ Brown played was actually pretty big,” Ward said, “he produced the informant Caldwell who corroborated the prior informant [Bill] Hiscox’s information that Pickton was a killer.”

Ward has advanced the unproven theory that RCMP members were aware years before Pickton’s arrest that off-duty cops, gangsters and sex trade workers frequented parties at Piggy’s Palace, a rural booze-can run by his brother Dave.

When Ward put his theory to a retired senior RCMP officer at the inquiry in May, he denied knowing of Mounties partying with the Picktons.

Beck also was incredulous.

“The member’s full involvement in the Pickton investigation was provided to the inquiry in keeping with normal disclosure practices,” the acting commanding officer for B.C. said.

“We will continue to cooperate fully with the inquiry and we will inform the inquiry of the findings of our code-of- conduct investigation as well as those of the independent external review.”

Oppal insisted he was reluctant to reopen his inquiry because he believed he had heard all of the relevant evidence.

“Cpl. Brown had no contact with Caldwell other than he was a go-between,” he said. “But because of the inflammatory nature of what we found out in The Vancouver Sun this morning I’ve asked commission counsel to look into it to see if anything else should be done. We need to know what is relevant and what might impact on the investigation.”

The former Appeal Court justice and cabinet minister acknowledged being troubled by the controversial material.

“It’s our duty to find out if there is anything more to this story,” Oppal said. “We have to do that.”

Art Vertleib, commission counsel, echoed the commitment and said the inquiry hoped to have answers within a day: “We are taking it very seriously.”

Coquitlam RCMP commanding officer Supt. Claude Wilcott said the force began investigating Brown’s Web activities after he was cleared of the complaint from “a girl on a dating website.”

“We concluded that investigation at the end of June,” Wilcott said.

Initially, the RCMP legal services department said Brown had been acting on his own time, was not holding himself out as a representative of the force and was engaged in legal consensual adult conduct.

“Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it should be condoned or accepted by any manager,” Ward said.

“I know most law firms wouldn’t condone it and I’m hard-pressed to think of any reputable organization that would condone such behaviour.”

imulgrew@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Brian Hutchinson: RCMP launch new Code of Conduct review after officer caught posing like Pickton in S&M photos

Brian Hutchinson Jul 5, 2012 – 7:41 PM ET | Last Updated: Jul 5, 2012 7:46 PM ET

David Clark / Postmedia News files

David Clark / Postmedia News files

Serial killer Robert Pickton's farm in Port Coquitlam, B.C.

VANCOUVER — Corporal Jim Brown has worked from the RCMP’s Coquitlam detachment for decades. He played a small but important role in the Mounties’ investigation of Robert (Willie) Pickton, the serial killer who murdered women and disposed of their bodies on a pig farm just a few kilometres from the same Coquitlam detachment.

Cpl. Brown had an alter ego: A boot-wearing, knife-wielding sadomasochist. In a shocking story published Thursday, Vancouver Sun columnist Ian Mulgrew described several photographs made available for public viewing on Internet websites catering to bondage and sadomasochism enthusiasts. There is Cpl. Brown, “posing in sexually explicit torture images reminiscent of [Pickton’s] crimes.”

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The veteran Mountie “appears to wear only his regulation-issue Mountie boots and an erection as he wields a huge knife and a bound naked woman cringes in terror,” writes Mr. Mulgrew, referring to just some of the photos in existence. The Mountie is also depicted grappling with the naked woman, and slashing at her with his knife.

Hundreds more photos of Cpl. Brown in various S&M positions continue to circulate on the Internet. It’s wretched stuff. Just as disturbing, Cpl. Brown’s RCMP superiors have known about the photos since December. An internal investigation was initiated then, and a decision was made to let the matter slide.

While I agree the staged images are very graphic, they appear only on an adult site catering to those that seek them out

In an email exchange Thursday with the National Post, RCMP Supt. Ray Bernoties explained that “[RCMP] Legal Services deemed this to be off duty, non-criminal, adult consensual activity during which the individual was not representing himself as a member of the RCMP and thus did not appear to them to meet the threshold for a Code of Conduct violation.

“While I agree the staged images are very graphic, they appear only on an adult site catering to those that seek them out,” Supt. Bernoties continued. “Having said that, I am very concerned and frankly embarrassed that the RCMP would, in any way, be linked to photos of this nature.”

The Post has learned that other sexually explicit photographs depicting Cpl. Brown were discovered inside the Coquitlam detachment itself. The digitally rendered photos were stored in a small USB device, which was left inserted in a computer and found by other RCMP members.

Supt. Bernoties confirmed the existence of the USB device and its sexually explicit file contents. He added that “the RCMP first learned of the graphic staged photos around December 2010. This activity was investigated at that time and legal opinion sought. In March 2012, the issue of the member’s life style was again investigated. Following that, Cpl. Brown’s personal website was terminated.”

According to sources, Cpl. Brown is now working in an administrative capacity inside the Coquitlam detachment.

Something — media scrutiny, perhaps — has triggered the Mounties to take another, more thorough look at Cpl. Brown’s off-duty, adult consensual activities. They have launched a formal Code of Conduct review, “examining all the events,” to be conducted by RCMP members in Richmond.

“We have also taken the unusual step of requesting an external police agency to conduct an independent review of the internal investigation,” Supt. Bernoties told the Post.

A number of Code of Conduct reviews have been launched lately. Some involve officers convicted of crimes such as assault, theft, and drunk driving. Other officers have admitted to inappropriate sexual behaviour. The list of offences is lengthy.

The reviews are part of the RCMP’s discipline process and performed by “impartial” Mounties, usually drawn from a Professional Standards Unit. They rarely end with a dismissal order against an offending officer. Usually, an offender is docked some pay. Officers can appeal decisions, which can add years to the lengthy and cumbersome process. In many cases, officers retire before disciplinary procedures are completed.

Based on appearances in his sadomasochism photos, Cpl. Brown looks to be at the typical retirement age for an RCMP member.

We have also taken the unusual step of requesting an external police agency to conduct an independent review of the internal investigation

His name and his Internet nickname — Kilted Knight — were discussed during hearings at the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, formed to examine why police bungled their investigations of Robert Pickton.

The inquiry heard that in 1999, Cpl. Brown “produced” a key Pickton informant for the Vancouver Police Department. The source had knowledge about criminal activities — including murder — on the Pickton farm. Sadly, three more years passed before RCMP arrested Pickton. He was eventually charged with 26 counts of murder, and tried in 2007. He was convicted on six counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

In May, an inquiry lawyer representing the families of Pickton’s victims suggested to two sworn witnesses — both former Coquitlam detachment members — that Cpl. Brown and other RCMP officers had, in the 1990s, attended social functions at Piggy’s Palace, a local booze can run by Pickton and his brother David, and popular with Hells Angels gang members.

Both of the former Coquitlam officers denied any knowledge of RCMP social visits to Piggy’s Palace.

Inquiry commissioner Wally Oppal said in a statement late Thursday that he has “no evidence to support reopening” the inquiry hearings, which concluded in June; however, he has asked his commission counsel to look into the Brown-sadomasochism revelations, and B.C.’s Ministry of Justice has been notified. Mr. Oppal has until the end of October to submit his inquiry report to B.C.’s justice minister, Shirley Bond.

National Post
bhutchinson@nationalpost.com

Officer's racy photos spark inquiry

RCMP corporal under investigation over images on S&M website

BY IAN MULGREW, VANCOUVER SUN COLUMNIST JULY 5, 2012

An RCMP code-of-conduct inquiry is underway into a Mountie who played a bit part in the investigation into serial killer Robert Pickton and appeared on an Internet website posing in sexually explicit torture images reminiscent of the pig-farmer's crimes.

In some of the graphic pictures obtained by The Vancouver Sun, Coquitlam Cpl. Jim Brown appears to wear only his regulation-issue Mountie boots and an erection as he wields a huge knife and a bound naked woman cringes in terror.

The narrative of the still photographs, posted on an S&M website, progresses from an apparent street scene of the woman walking past Brown sitting on a wall; he overpowers her; he hog-ties her, he imprisons her in a cage, he threatens her with a large butcher knife and he slashes her.

His detachment commander, Supt. Claude Wilcott, said that when he became aware of the material on the Web earlier this year, he discussed the issue with the force's legal services to determine if there was a violation of the Mountie code of conduct.

"The alleged issue was deemed to be off-duty, non-criminal, adult consensual activity during which the individual was not representing himself as a member of the RCMP and thus it did not appear to legal services to meet the threshold for a code-of-conduct violation," he said.

"Despite this legal opinion, a code-of-conduct investigation is under-way to determine if there are any additional facts and ensure the fullest review possible. While I agree the staged images are graphic, it's important to note that they appear only on an adult site catering to those who seek them out."

Mike Webster, who has had a career counselling police officers and advising departments, including the RCMP, said the sexual degradation of women in the images raises serious concerns.

And he thought the initial response of the national force cavalier.

"The fact that Mr. Brown could engage in these activities without considering current attitudes toward this type of behaviour indicates to me that his empathetic abilities are impaired," Webster said.

During a brief telephone call Wednesday at the detachment, Brown declined to comment about the pictures and the "Kilted Knight" persona featured in them.

He acknowledged being aware of the material.

"I am familiar with an internal investigation that was conducted," Brown said tersely. "It concluded in March or April and it was decided it was a non-issue - There was no victim."

Lawyer Jason Gratl was astounded by the images and said Brown's even peripheral involvement in the missing women investigation was troubling.

Gratl, who represented Down-town Eastside community groups at the public inquiry into the Pickton police investigation, wondered why Commissioner Wally Oppal wasn't informed when he was conducting hearings at the very moment the RCMP learned of the material.

"This pictorial enactment of a kid-napping and torture by an RCMP investigator crystallizes the ethical nexus between the detachment and the farm," Gratl said.

"Investigators from the detachment informed Pickton he was a suspect while he was still under investigation. While the enactment of the kidnapping of a young woman from a place that resembles Strathcona to a dimly lit rural setting where she is put in an animal cage and tortured may have occurred after the terms of reference [of the inquiry], its relevance ... is indisputable."

But Supt. Wilcott maintained in an email that to "associate this to a more than decade old investigation into a serial killer ... is an incredible leap. If you would like to check back with me in a couple weeks I may be in a better position to provide more information as I expect the investigation to be submitted to me in the near future."

Art Vertlieb, counsel for the inquiry, said he only learned about the situation late Wednesday and would be seeking an explanation.

Brown did not appear at the Missing Women's Inquiry or at the Pick-ton trial.

His name, however, appears on the "Key Events Chronology" exhibit filed for one of the policing panels.

In an entry dated July 16, 1999, it reads: "[Vancouver Police officer Geramy] Field receives call from Cst. Jim Brown (Coquitlam RCMP) re [source Ross] Caldwell; assigns tip to [officer Mark Chernoff."

Chernoff and his partner were assigned the task of interviewing Caldwell, the second tipster to con-tact authorities and finger Pickton nearly three years before he was arrested.

Caldwell lived on Pickton's farm and provided key information about the killer, but the inquiry was told the RCMP questioned his credibility.

imulgrew@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun